TOKYO (Interstat) — Teruaki Sato homered and drove in three runs as the Hanshin Tigers outlasted the Tokyo Yakult Swallows 9-7 in 11 innings Tuesday evening at Meiji Jingu Stadium. Hanshin improved to 74-58-1, while Yakult fell to 57-75-2. Sato went 2 for 6 with a home run and three RBIs. Nozomu Takatera also homered and drove in two runs for Hanshin. Yakult got home runs from Shu Masuda, Haruto Tanaka and Kazuya Maruyama. Anderson Severino earned the win, and Taisei Kudo recorded his 11th save. Noboru Shimizu took the loss. Shota Maruyama pitched 2 2/3 innings of one-hit relief with four strikeouts for Yakult. Nash Walters added two hitless innings with one walk and one strikeout. The game drew 29,328 and lasted 4 hours, 30 minutes. Hanshin had 13 hits, while Yakult finished with 12. Hanshin scored four runs in the first inning and two in the second to build an early lead.